Bookworm

The Drop Edge of Yonder (Two Dollar Radio)Where has Rudy Wurlitzer been for the last fifteen years? The mental traveler takes another vision quest, this time into the Old American West...

Our Story Begins: New and Selected Stories (Knopf)Tobias Wolff has re-written his famous stories many times—even after they've been published...

Firefly under the Tongue: Selected Poems (New Directions)Coral Bracho, a major Mexican poet, writes ecstatic visionary poetry that has been translated into English for the first time. Our program marks another first—she has never before agreed to an interview...

Fall of Frost (Viking)Brian Hall takes on a fictional life of our great Robert Frost, giving language to the poet's inner life.

All the Sad Young Literary Men (Viking)Keith Gessen, one of the founding editors of the hip, intellectual journal n+1, has written his first novel. It's about the struggles of young people to break into the world of their aspirations, in this case, the literary intelligentsia of New York City...

Sway (Little, Brown)Zachary Lazar's novel is about the Rolling Stones, Charles Manson, Kenneth Anger and the dark side of the Sixties. In this conversation, we try to gauge how much "sympathy for the devil" the era generated—from sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll to satanic ritual murders.

Lush Life (Farrar, Straus & Giroux)This high-voltage interview with Richard Price (he spiels, riffs, and shoots off sparks) gives a rare insight into the way he orchestrates the complex of simultaneous perception in his writing. He proceeds with a strong sense of dread—ready for an attack from any and every direction.

Isabel Allende's second memoir is written to her daughter Paula who died. We discuss storytelling as a form of memory, a way of preserving the present.

An Alchemist with One Eye on Fire (Black Widow Press)When The Bookworm explains that reading Eshleman's intense and visceral work brings up initial feelings of disgust, Eschleman responds that his poetry is a matter of initiation and transformation.

Declension in the Village of Chung Luong (Ausable Press) and Brian Turner Here, Bullet (Alice James Books)Bruce Weigl is a poet who served in Vietnam. Brian Turner wrote poetry while serving in Iraq. Theirs is the poetry of war as written by on-site observers.